A urine-based fertilizer to limit the use of fertilizers?

“We can’t go on like this. recognizes Aurélien Guers, farmer in Chézy in the Allier (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region). Solutions must be found to replace the chemical fertilizers in our cultures. While maintaining stable yields and without additional cost. » This is the difficult equation of a conventional farm and the best way to judge is to experiment! What did Aurélien Guers, curious to test the new fertilizer from the start-up Toopi Organics, baptized Bactipi, unearthed by its fertilizer trader, Olivier Vera, director of Fertitrade, always on the lookout for innovations. Bactipi is a biostimulant produced from recycled urine, rich in bacteria supposed to help plants assimilate the phosphorus.

“We test new solutions every year, specifies the young farmer at the head with his brother of a farm of 400 hectares (ha) half in grass for their livestock of cattle. Given the poor results obtained so far, we became skeptical. I admit that, for the first time, given the results with Bactipi, we intend to test this on a larger scale next year on part of our 70 to 80 ha of But “.

In practice, they sow maize in rotation with wheat and grass over 2 years and they fertilize their land, at the time of plowing, with manure from their cattle or purchased poultry droppings, then at the time of sowing, with an organic chemical fertilizer, DAP 18/46. Deposited a few centimeters from the seed row, this “starter fertilizer” provides the corn seed with the first doses ofnitrogen (18 units, 260 will be needed throughout the crop to achieve the targeted yield of 130 quintals, or 13 tonnes per hectare) and phosphorus (46 units).

Based on small-scale experimental results, Bactipi was intended to replace this first spreading fertilizer, but the product had never been tested on a farm before. Aurélien Guers used it (sprayed in April, 3 days after sowing), according to four procedures each time over one seeder width, i.e. 6 rows of maize: no fertilizer and the maximum recommended dose of Bactipi (25 litres/ha ), half-dose fertilizer (50 kg/ha) and 25 l/ha of Bactipi, half-dose fertilizer (50 kg/ha) and half-dose Bactipi (12.5 l/ha), finally fertilizer at normal dose (100 kg/ha) and Bactipi at half dose (12.5 l/ha).

Yields unchanged with less fertilizer

“At harvest time, the harvester displays average yields in real time, he says. This year, with 100 kg of DAP 18/46, the yield from our plot was around 130 quintals. We were initially disappointed to see that it decreased to 120 quintals in the absence of fertilizer. But the yield remained unchanged in the three other test conditions, with the fertilizer at mid-dose or at normal dose”. This fertilizer would therefore not replace fertilizer but it would allow the dose to be reduced by half.

As one biostimulant expert explains: “This result is consistent with the fact that this type of product helps the plant to assimilate the phosphorus but does not provide any nutrients, these must be available in the soil beforehand. The effectiveness of the product depends on the quality of the soil and that of the selected bacterial strains ».

Next step for Aurélien Guers: refine the conditions of use of the product on a larger scale, because its composition, based on bacteria, requires more vigilance than pesticides classics: “It must be applied at temperatures between 10 and 25°C and without frost in the days that follow”, note the farmer. And on the cost side, for him, even if the prices of fertilizers have exploded this year, this is not the subject: “Above all, it has to work for us to continue. As for the origin of the product, urine, even if it surprised us at first, concretely, it looks like other chemical products, except that we don’t need to protect ourselves. »

A start-up produces urine-based fertilizers (1/2)

This start-up from the Bordeaux region offers an ecological and economic solution that could experience a boom: the recycling urine in the form of agricultural fertilizers.

Article ofIsabelle Bellin, published on January 20, 2022

Launch a start-up that recyclesurine, you had to dare! Michael Roes created Toopi Organics in February 2019: “I’ve had enough of this shitty world!” I wanted to give meaning to my life. While making my vegetable garden, I started making my own fertilizers and one thing leading to another, I had the idea of to recycle urine. »

The idea is simple. What soil nutrients does a plant need? Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and a multitude oftrace elements (copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, sulfur, zinc, etc). And these are the microorganisms of the ground, in particular bacteria, which make these elements available to plants by degrading the matter organic. The plant assimilates all this through its roots and in return provides many nutrients to micro-organisms such as sugars. The idea of ​​Michael Roes, patented, is to use urine as a culture medium for bacteria for agricultural purposes.

“You just heat the urine with a source of sugar and then add strains of bacteria, he explains. In a few days, we obtain the finished product: a liquid concentrated in bacteria to be spread directly on the ground. » This product is not a fertilizer strictly speaking – it does not provide nutrients – it is another type of fertilizer, a microbial product called a biostimulant: thanks to the bacteria it contains, it helps plants to assimilate nutrients. There are many. Their quality depends on the microbial strains used. If they get it, themarketing authorization they requested in France will be a guarantee. “We should market our first biostimulant for the assimilation of phosphorus in 2022, announces Michael Roes. For agriculture, it will be an alternative to fertilizers phosphates produced from mining operations in Morocco or Russia. »

Will follow a biostimulant allowing fertilization nitrogenous from soy and others legumes. “According to the first evaluations carried out by the Astria agronomic testing platform, this product is just as effective and much more competitive than the products currently available on the market., he continues. We also prepare products for fungicide Where insecticide which can replace the pesticides. The idea is to adapt the product to the local needs of the soil, by enriching the urine with ad-hoc bacteria. » What about drug residues? “Our solution is in any case less polluting than the expensive technologies of wastewater treatment plants (also based on bacteria) which discharge water into rivers while the ground is a natural filtering medium, he assures. In addition, the separative collection of urine will be necessary if we want to completely eliminate these pollutants. Therefore, so much to value it! »

Local partnerships

Toopi Organics’ development model is based on local partnerships with communities, collectors and cooperatives within a radius of 100 kilometers around the processing units. The first is installed in Loupiac de la Réole (Gironde) and will be able to produce 2,500 liters per day. A second is planned near Poitiers. On the collection side, this means replacing conventional water urinals with dry urinals connected to a recovery tank. The approach seems convincing. Partnerships are multiplying: with The Fumainerie (collection from private individuals in Bordeaux), the departments and regions to equip colleges and high schools, Vinci for motorway rest areas and Futuroscope. Local authorities are also interested: “1m³ of urine collected is 10 m³ less effluent to be treated in treatment plants! », says Michael Roes.

What about the business model? “Depending on the features, our products will cost four to five times less than current products, fertilizers or microbial products, for the same beneficial effects but without the risk of fluctuation, says Michael Roes. Urine is an inexhaustible and universal raw material! » Requests are pouring in, from more than 60 countries. The start-up announces a subsidiary in Belgium in 2022, discussions with the governments of Benin and Kenya, etc. As he explains: “Our solution is particularly suitable for Africa. It is enough to install dry toilets, no need for a water network orsanitation. And a low-cost fertilizer to boot! » Toopi Organics has received numerous innovation awards and is preparing a big fundraiser in 2022.